Monday, August 14, 2017

The loner genius strikes again; all eyes on China for AI developments; machine learning will power your marketing; a creepily driverless car; let's get phygital; the pros and cons of influencers; the death of retail has been greatly exaggerated; the Amazon empire is vast and hidden; Facebook sneaks into China; Snap suddenly isn't all that; sports streaming services are on the rise; why VCs hate podcasting; the restaurant industry is falling prey to phishing attacks; the soap opera that is Uber continues; your phone has your attention even when it's off; the difference between amateurs and professionals; and more in the Hey, Kool-Aid! edition of The Full Monty. Don't forget check out where Brain+Trust is speaking (final section below).

We've got all of these links — and those that didn't make the cut for publication — in The Full Monty Magazine on Flipboard.

Top Stories

Amid the fallout from the Google memo, we're finding that the loner genius nerd may be something of a myth. After all, programming for better customer experience means that interpersonal skills like collaboration, communication, empathy and emotional intelligence are essential to the job.

According to a recent Forrester report, automation is reshaping customer engagement. Agents, bots, hardware robots and intelligent self-service solutions will address customer-facing problems over the next 10 years. You're probably already dealing with some AI in customer engagement and you might not even know it.

Brands need to take on more human aspects in order to truly stand out. A strong point of view, empathy, connecting passions and beliefs. While your brand may choose to not have an influencer strategy, it can convey human qualities in its own marketing and communications.

THIS WEEK IN RETAIL:

Despite a store closure rate of 4.6%, Moody's says that retail is still fundamentally healthy. According to the analysis, the industry is in flux and "experiencing major growing pains, brought on by an increasingly demanding, less predictable consumer base." Competitive pressures are forcing retailers to adjust infrastructures and converge brick-and-mortar and e-commerce platforms, with emphasis on developing scale, distribution and technology. To paraphrase Mark Twain, "rumors of retail's death have been greatly exaggerated."

Walmart is expanding its Scan and Go mobile checkout. Both Walmart and Amazon are testing ways to allow shoppers to check out with less interaction, although Amazon's only allows it to accommodate 20 customers at a time. If Walmart can arrive at a viable solution first, its scale (see above) will give it an advantage.

Birchbox has held acquisition talks with a number of retailers, including Walmart. The retail giant has been on a buying spree in the last year, including upscale brands such as Jet, Moosejaw, Bonobos and Modcloth.

FACEBOOK / INSTAGRAM / WHATSAPP

Facebook also launched Dynamic Ads for Real Estate: targeted real estate ads for Facebook and Instagram, giving it a direct challenge to Zillow. While you have all of your information already on Facebook, it might be a stretch for the company to take over Zillow's role. After all, would you want your house price associated directly with your profile?

ALPHABET / GOOGLE

YouTube is entering the mobile messaging space. The Alphabet division launched a new sharing feature in its mobile app that allows users to send their friends videos and chat from within a new tab in the mobile app. Look out, Snap — you're surrounded.

Media

The latest in the world of streaming video, audio, and the advertising, pricing and bundling models related to them.

CBS is creating an over-the-top streaming sports service. Since sports comprise a significant audience of live television viewers, and CBS has multiple contracts with professional leagues, this could push the Tiffany network into valued territory.

Patent troll Personal Audiolost its longstanding bid for the patent on podcasting. At the crux of the matter was that the patent was filed long before there was any such thing as podcasts. Also the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) demonstrated at least two works of prior art.

Program of the Week: This week's recommendation is The Grift, a Panoply podcast hosted by Maria Konnikova, regular contributor to The New Yorker and author of The Confidence Game. Do you have a program to recommend? Add yours to our Google Sheet: smonty.co/yourpodcasts.

SPONSOR

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Regulatory / Security

Business disruptions in the legal, regulatory, and computer security fields, from hacking to the on-demand economy and more.

SECURITY / HACKING:

Simple phishing attacks are delivering complex malware to restaurant chains. Researchers recently came across a new JScript backdoor called Bateleur, which is being distributed by the FIN7 (aka Carbanak) hacker group in phishing emails targeting U.S.-based restaurant chains. The threat is distributed in an email sent from an Outlook.com or Gmail account, with the message, “here is the check as discussed.” Attached to the email is a Word document containing a macro. Be careful out there.

HBO leaks continue, with a hacker posting several episodes from Curb Your Enthusiasm and four other HBO series including Insecure and Ballers. We haven't been able to verify if Larry David accidentally leaked the episodes himself, in an effort to show Cheryl that he hadn't written her out of the show.

Uber is winding down its car leasing business in the U.S.Clearly, this was always a risky business, as it leased cars to drivers with questionable credit at the same time it was squeezing them with increasingly lower fares. The term 'predatory' comes to mind.

To ensure that certainty, investor and board seat holder Benchmark Capital is suing former Uber CEO Travis Kalanick for fraud, asserting that he sought "to entrench himself on Uber's Board of Directors and increase his power over Uber for his own selfish ends. Kalanick's overarching objective is to pack Uber's Board with loyal allies in an effort to insulate his prior conduct from scrutiny and clear the path for his eventual return as CEO—all to the detriment of Uber's stockholders, employees, driver-partners, and customers." The investor group owns 13% of Uber shares. Just another day at Uber.

Brain+Trust Partners doesn't believe in gobbledygook — we use common sense strategic guidance to help you master the evolving marketplace. From strategy development to technology and data vendor selection, to digital transformation and streamlining processes, our focus is on the customer experience. And our decades of experience working for major brands means that we deeply understand the challenges you're facing. Let us know if we can help you.